Where to see the bicycling Renaissance

In the cycling Renaissance, Portland is today’s Florence, and the utility bike is the chapel. Design history is being made there, right now.

http://vimeo.com/32176853

Portland is a sprawling, car dominated, cold and wet city with hills, where bicycle transport died out with people’s great grand parents. Prognosis: “forget it!” Yet 10 times more trips are by bike here, than the average world city. And though some would deny it (they doth protest too much, I suspect), I’m sure the exquisiteness of bikes such as these, that Portland has specialized in producing, has helped fuel the bike craze consuming that city, in the same way that cars such as these changed the world last time:

1 Comment

I presume these are like the concept models at the car shows, and the slightly more boring family saloon version that gets out to market might have boring stuff like mudguards that work and fully enclosed chains…dull, dull! I hear you cry, and you’re right of course. It’s like a visualisation – seduce first and worry about the damp proofing later.